I guess the big news this summer was the acquisition of Slogan, another Dutch warmblood. I wasn't involved in all of the details, so let's just say we swapped Apollo for Slogan (or "Logan" for short, as Chloe has taken to calling him). Here he is in late June as they were getting acquainted:

Slogan shortly after being unloaded from the trailer.

Slogan's former Dutch owners left a message on this blog looking for information on what had become of their beloved Slogan. Chloe was thrilled to be able to have some Dutch pen pals so they have been communicating and exchanging photos. This is from an early workout, Chloe and Slogan in the arena:

Chloe & Slogan in the canter.

I've been absent from around here for a while primarily because I decided to take a few courses in lighting and specifically in off-camera lighting. One of the basic things I practiced was to just use a reflector and turn the strobe (flash) pointed into a large poster board that I was using as a reflector. This creates the illusion that the strobe is off camera and coming into the subject from the side. Here is an example using Chloe as my model:

Chloe & Shela

It was beginning to storm on this particular day in August, so ambient light was fading and what I was attempting to do was add a little fill using the poster board in my right hand with the camera in my left. Actually, I think I got my assistant, Linda, to hold the reflector, but the point is that you can actually do this fairly simply and create the illusion of off-camera lighting. Here is another example holding the reflector in my left hand while framing the shot in my right hand:

Chloe & Shela with portrait of Shela.

The reflector concept works pretty well and is a simple setup, but the real goal was to go totally off-camera. So, as I have progressed in my self-schooling, I also began to accumulate some of the gear I would need. For example, I would need some additional strobes, so I bought a couple of more on eBay, and I also purchased four Cactus V electronic triggers to remotely fire the off-camera strobes. Of course, you'll need a few more items like light stands, etcetera, and very importantly, light modifiers, such as an umbrella, to diffuse the strobe light. It can get quite involved. In my next post, I'll demonstrate some of my early attempts at learning the technique.

Here's Chloe's new horse, Apollo, a Dutch Warmblood. He's a 7 year-old gelding and was imported from the Netherlands in June. We picked him up this past Thursday from the seller's farm in Loxahatchee. He's a bred and trained dressage horse. Chloe is ecstatic, obviously.

Chloe had gone about as far as she could with her quarter horse, Shela. A quarter horse is perhaps not the best choice for dressage, but obviously Shela was a starter horse for Chloe, and we knew that eventually she would need to move up to a warmblood. This is a big step up for her, but she worked hard, was dedicated, and certainly earned her way up to this horse.